


turn the lights off (i'm in love)

by spellman (orphan_account)



Series: wedding bells [1]
Category: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue Series - Mackenzi Lee
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 23:10:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15181409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/spellman
Summary: but really, what am I thinking?i’m going to propose to percy.that’s what I’m thinking.





	turn the lights off (i'm in love)

**Author's Note:**

> title is from 'love at first sight' by the brobecks <3

I must be insane. There is absolutely no other reason why I would have bought a diamond ring from a sea merchant on the coast of Greece. No way. It isn’t like it was particularly pricey (though my sense of value has improved greatly since… well, everything), but really, _what am I thinking?_

_ I’m going to propose to Percy.  _

That’s what I’m thinking. Of course we _obviously_ can’t get married- but I’d like to have this between us. Hell, he’d probably laugh at me if I even said one word of that. I should have thought about this, whether I really want to but-- I don’t know. It certainly doesn’t help that I bought the ring last year; I’ve been carrying it with me since Athens, and the weight is unbearable (metaphorically, not physically). I haven’t backed out. It was my plan from the beginning to wait until Venice but now-- I’m not sure if I can.

It’s like one day I want to throw the damned thing at him and get it over with, deal with whatever he has to say about it. But part of me needs to wait, I need it to be special. And then again, we need to take into account the _other_ part of me, who insists that he’s not going through with it at all. He prevails most days - and yet I can’t tell if that’s the devil or the angel perched on my shoulder.

By some sorcery, we’ve managed to travel back and forth across the continent for over a year and a half; both of us having collectively decided that we’ll be damned to Hell twice before we set foot in Cheshire again. We try our best to stick to the coasts, too, and to the main port cities where Scipio told us that he stops often. I never really thought I’d say this, but I’ve missed Felicity like anything. Since she boarded up with the pirates, I’ve seen her very few times, but the madwoman seems to be happier than I’ve ever seen her. Who knew cutting up pirates for months could do that to a young girl?

Other than that, Percy and I never make travel plans. Our policy is: if we have the funds, then off we go. Percy mainly makes money with that wretched violin of his, and it’s surprising how much money people will pay to watch a nineteen-year-old play the fiddle in a tavern on a Wednesday night.

I turn to face him now, he has his nose in a book like always. I fall in love a tiny bit more with him now, how he looks in the light of the sunset, how his hair falls over his face and his eyes, how he’s almost half asleep and-- _Christ_. I am not doing this right now. No way.

He turns to face me then, chuckling self consciously. “What’s with the face?” he asks.

“What face?” I ask, and I’m really, actually bewildered because I could have been scowling or frowning or making complete love-eyes but I have no idea how to respond because I don’t know _what_ I was doing.

“You’re cute when you act dense,” and then, just to finish me off, the last nail in my metaphorical coffin, he does that _godawful_ tipped-head-smile-thing that leaves me a complete and utter mess, without fail. I can feel myself blushing, and God help me, how on Earth am I wishing to marry this man when it’s been over a year and I forget my own name when he calls me _cute_?

I could come up with a witty remark, but I’m too tired, so I bat him away with a half-hearted “Oh _shush_ , Newton.” He puts his book down and looks at me, a half-smile playing on his lips.

“No, really.” He says, and he’s doing this to annoy me but I can’t find it in me to be mad at him. “What was that face for?”

I roll my eyes to the heavens before answering him. I consider covering my ear and using the can’t hear you excuse, but I’ve gotten a lot of use from that one over the last year, and I think it’s losing its effect. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” he has that tone of voice, and yes, he’s definitely trying to annoy me. _Pack up everybody! Don’t you know it’s annoy the living hell out of Monty hour!_ I give up on the exasperated facade and snort in laughter, covering my face with my hands.

“I don’t even know what I was doing, Perce!” I laugh, shuffling closer to him. “Do enlighten me,”

“You were looking at me as if you wanted to punch me, kiss me or marry me.” I think my stomach drops to the ground, and I’m sure that my face goes pale for a second or two. I force out a laugh as I lean closer to him. _Keep cool, Monty, don’t give it away for the love of God._

“Yes to all of those options.” I whisper, though it comes out more stifled than intended, but I don’t think he notices, because he kisses me then, or at least as soon as he’s done giggling like a maiden.

I don’t know how I’m going to do this.

**

Whoever said that last minute nerves are normal was quite obviously a compulsive liar. Though I think that last minute nerves is possibly the understatement of the century, since my heart is beating six hundred times a minute right now. It doesn’t help that Percy sort of seems as if he’d like to sleep, though it isn’t really my fault that I’ve dragged him out past midnight - I want there to be as little people as possible - I’m not really a fan of being beaten violently.

It also doesn’t help that I’m painfully sober right now, but I need to do this right. I made a promise to Percy that I would stop drinking as much as I did, and I am not about to throw away this opportunity. When he discretely reaches over and grabs my hand, I can’t tell if it calms me or throws me into another level of fear.

“Where are we going?” he asks, and I turn to him and smile knowingly, trying not to be too knowing, but just knowing enough that he knows he’s in good hands ( _average_ hands, at best).

“All in good time, darling.” I slow the pace, wanting to savour every moment now. My favourite person in my favourite place, and Lord, I’m about to do this. God help me. We get to the Grand Canal, and we stop at the bridge, overlooking the water.

“We’re not far from that alley where we kissed for the first time. Well, it-- wasn’t the first time, _really_ , but-” he trails off when I press my lips to his hand softly. There’s nobody about, I have nothing to fear, and _yet_. Nobody is watching us but the stars, and they’re so beautiful tonight. Here I am admiring the stars in the sky, when I have the most gorgeous one standing next to me.

I turn so that I’m facing him, and take his other hand in mine. “We kissed for the first time in Paris, and here in Venice. And on that beach in Santorini. We had a rocky start for a lot of reasons, many of which were because I’m a _horribly_ reckless person, and I’m about to do something even more reckless,” and God, I wish I could read that look on Percy’s face then, because he knows, he knows, _he knows_.

“And- and I know we really can’t-- but.” To hell with being proper. “As much as it pains me to do so, I’m going to have to watch you tower over me because I’m about to get down on one knee and ask you to marry me.” And then I do. And I take the ring from my pocket, where it’s been weighing me down for months, and I offer it to him, A gift, more than a gift, _my love_. Percy has a hand covering his face now, and the other is still in my hand. I see behind his hand that he’s blushing, and wearing a bashful grin, and he’s nodding quickly.

“Monty, get up here and kiss me right now, you beautiful disaster.” he says, and Saints, I’m so glad that went the way it did. I almost spring up to him, throwing my arms around him and doing exactly what he asked me to do.

“So that’s a yes?” I whisper, pulling away just a little bit.

“Of course, _Romeo_. That’s a yes.” And he kisses me again, and it’s perfect. I’m in Venice, I’m in love, and if the stars are all watching us,

 

_ then so be it. _

**Author's Note:**

> toot toot bitch you've reached dramatic irony central
> 
> SO this was originally gonna b like uncharacteristically romantic monty but then i remembered that "you can't eat love" is a literal monty quote so i decided to do proposal monty style! also i originally thought how cute would it be if monty made percy sit down when he got down on one knee because of the height thing but i couldnt find a way around that like where.... would he be sitting...... idk!! 
> 
> i hope y'all enjoyed this!!!!! i barely ever write tggtvav shit but when i do i have a super fun time doing so :')
> 
> please leave kudos nd comments if you enjoyed & u can find me on tumblr at @damnablepixie!
> 
> side note: holy fucking fuck the percy/monty tag only has 50 fics which is a huge kick in the face after spending months in a fandom with 30k+ works jdjdjdjsjxej


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